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Asigra extends into the cloud

White box online backup for laptops

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Disk-to-disk backup supplier Asigra is extending out to the cloud and improving virtualisation support with Cloud Backup v10.0.

Asigra offers DS-Client backup of desktops and physical and virtual servers to a central site with a DS-System backup set store and BLM archive for older data. It has added support for laptops in the field with DS-Mobile Client, new backup set support, and the ability to send longer term archive data to the cloud by using an API.

Asigra has recognised that its customers want a fuller product, in terms of being able to protect more IT platforms and in terms of being able to protect and recover applications and not just files. It has also realised it has to offer a good gateway to the cloud, and the best way to do this is not to build its own cloud resource or ally with one or two favoured cloud vendors but to offer an API so managed service providers (MSPs) can use Asigra's software to offer their own branded cloud backup and archive service, with access to backend clouds such as Amazon's S3, Nirvanix, etc.

The idea is that there are now four tiers of backup data: local sets for the fastest recovery, off-site in a data centre for protection managed by Service Level Agreements, off-site in an archive for protection according to a retention policy, and even further off-site in the cloud for longer-term data vaulting. The cloud can be public, private or a hybrid if the two.

There are new backup sets to improve application recovery. Asigra has added Volume Shadow Services (VSS)-aware backup of Exchange, SharePoint, SQL Server, and Hyper-V. Backup set support is provided for Oracle SBT and SAP, and there are permissions-only sets for Linux DS-Clients.

The new DS-Mobile Client will backup laptops and small office/home office (SOHO) systems and can be branded by MSPs, using the DS-Client API, as their own offering. It's been tailored so that users can run their own backup and restores, making this a low-maintenance embedded option for MSPs.

Asigra's support for virtualised servers includes VMare, of course, Citrix and Hyper-V, with both Windows and Linux versions of DS-Client. There are no agents on either physical or virtual servers, Asigra claiming this is a cleaner way of achieving backups. Version 10.0 of Asigra's software supports backup and restore in the three virtual server environments using their native APIs. Both DS-Client and DS-System can also run as virtual appliances.

Data is encrypted at rest and in flight and can be destroyed according to the US DoD 5220-.22-M specification with a destruction certificate generated for compliance purposes. Asigra says it offers global deduplication and replication for disaster recovery, and that its customers need to capture, ingest, and store less data, not that industry benchmarks can be used to verify this claim.

The company is making sure its Cloud Backup product set can transition to a world of private and public cloud service providers, where server virtualisation comes in three flavours, where customers want to recover applications as well as files, and where mobile computing devices needs protecting as well as fixed ones. It sees customers buying services from MSPs and is providing them with a brand-able and ready-to-embed backup product, a similar tactic to Spare Backup.

The company says this strategy will expand its total addressable market (TAM), and that's for sure. It doesn't have the big brand name recognition of a NetBackup or Backup Exec, and nor can it afford to, or wish to, build out its own cloud backup offering. It has to partner and ceding brand name control to MSPs, albeit with a Powered by Asigra tag, and providing them with a means to offer services to smaller customers as well as large ones looks like a smart move.

Asigra Cloud Backup v10 is available immediately from $50/month through cloud backup service providers. Customer can opt to deploy the software directly onsite. ®